Google is committed to the ambient display feature as the main method of alerting you to notifications on Nexus devices, but it's an imperfect solution. And indeed, some users simply refuse to buy a phone that doesn't have a proper notification LED. This year's Nexus phones both have an LED, and they offer a lot of functionality.

We were told by Dave Burke after the announcement that the LED would be an optional notification signal on the Nexus devices, and that apps would be able to make use of it. What we didn't know at the time was that there's a settings toggle in the Sound & notification menu (it's off by default). After enabling the Pulse notification light option, both the 5X and 6P will use the notification light for (I think) all notifications. They are RGB lights, so they can display plenty of different colors.

So, the basic functionality just works, but you can also change the LED's behavior with something like Light Flow. We tested this and were able to change the color and pulse rate of all notifications. You just have to grant the app notification access to make it happen.

The Nexus 5X has an LED in the speaker grille at the bottom of the phone. It's big and very bright. The Nexus 6P has its light in the upper left corner of the phone next to the camera. It's not as bright as the 5X, but it's good enough to get your attention.

You can keep ambient display on with the LED or just use the LED by itself. It's great that Google is actually giving us a choice to use a notification LED this year, and you only need a third-party app if you want to customize the behavior.

Comments

Dirge

YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James

Since last year's Nexus 6 also has a LED, any chance it will be officially enabled through a future update? Shouldn't be too difficult since anyone can get it working now (unofficially) without much trouble.

UKTK8

This would be great but I'm not holding my breath. I doubt this would ever happen but I'd love to be wrong.

James

It's basically one line of code according to the hack from XDA. I would hope Google would enable it just to keep the options consistent among devices. There's no question that Google COULD do it pretty easily, the question is whether they WILL. But if people make enough noise...

UKTK8

I think we are in the minority :P

Which sucks cause I'm really liking N6 even more with Marshmallow on it. I'm seeing significantly better battery life and I get to continue enjoying wireless charging :)

Guest

Even the XDA hack is just that... a hack. I'm pretty sure the N6's LED is limited to RGB and doesn't support a strobe effect, so it's a constant on or off light. Google may not be able to update it, as it may be a hardward limitation.

Since they haven't done so in the official 6.0 release, I'm guessing Google didn't enable it on purpose, but maybe it's just an oversight.

Adrian Vovk

Does ambient display work like Moto Display?

andy_o

Ambient display is much simpler. I haven't personally used Moto Display, but I can tell you that Ambient display's "options" only include on and off. My main problem with it is that when it's on, AD turns on when you pick up the phone, which then if you touch any part of the screen it will turn fully on, it's very easy to turn on the screen every time you pick up your phone, unless you are very careful not to touch the screen.

Adrian Vovk

Yes, I know that. Does it activate like Moto Display. Sorry was on the run and didn't type the question properly

Adrian Vovk

On the 5x. I know it does on the 6p

BeerOnTap

I'm rooted and use my Nexus 6 with light flow. However, the only three colors I can get to work are Red, Blue, and Green (blue can either be light or dark) and that's it.
Has anyone else been able to get other colors working? I'm pretty sure it's a hardware limitation.

rageconsulting

If you use the "mixer" option in lightflow you should get a few more colors but they aren't great. I don't think the red, green and blue leds are physically close enough together to get them to merge into other colors nicely.

Anton Kuznetsov

Probably it just didn't take off, like fingerprint sensor. Realization was too bad and they disabled it forever.
In N6X and N6P they made it better so it's working there.

So the 5X and 6P have something similar to the Moto X ambient display for notifications?

Does it also support the wave over to activate the display? I love that about my Moto X

James

5X and 6P support Ambient Display like the Motorola Nexus 6. This is different from Active Display like on the Moto X. Also, they don't support wake on proximity (wave over).

Adil Tajgeer

ambient display is a feature of stock android on all versions 5.x and above.

active display is moto's version of it which is different, but personally i like ambient display more now since all notifications are actionable and can also be dismissed completely vs just the lock screen.

the wave gestures are a moto feature since the moto x has IR sensors to get that data with the nexii lack

however, with the new sensor hub, ambient should turn on with a more gentle nudge than before

Ian Fay

I <3 Light Flow so very much. It makes telling what that notification is, even when the phone's on silent, incredibly easy. It was one of the first apps I installed on my new phone.

Roh_Mish

I like how with lightfow and tasker, I can customize the lights to such an extent that j know what the notifications are exactly without turning on The display. And other people can't make out what the notifications are, it gives your device that personal touch

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Light Flow is incredibly limited though. Like it only recognizes a certain number of apps, and not being able to set custom LED colors for ANY app I want

Ian Fay

Huh, I've never had any issues with it. I have custom colors/blinks for Twitter, FB, email, texts, phone calls & VM. All work like a charm.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Well sadly I do. For example, I want to change the color of LED from an unofficial XDA app - and there's no option to do so. Which leaves me with the default color, which is white. That's why I prefer something like GravityBox since it allows the full control for notifications, including the color of LED for every app I have, and even controlling the pulsation, blink speed etc

I really love Light Flow, it's a great app, but it just doesn't work for me as well as I'd like it to

Andreu

the LED seems way cooler on the 5X..I wonder if the LED in the 6P can do a fading effect, or it just blinks (as those from samsung)

aSquard

Agree - I'm a bit jealous of the 5X LED. Hopefully the 6P LED is brighter than the numerous pictures show. At least it's RGB though

It looks a lot like that cool green LED behind the headset earpiece in the 1st Gen Moto X, which you can't use without root and a Tasker task.

Larry

Buy the latest Nexus Phones below

Ryan

Yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy! Now if only someone would discover that it actually had wireless charging all along as well.

porkytorkwal1

Nexus 6 does have wireless charging, no?

Ryan

The old 6, yes. But neither of the new phones support it.

Benjamin Walburn

I'm glad this is a toggle. The only time I could tolerate the led was during when No Interruptions would kill the infuriating blinking while I'm trying to fall asleep. Too bad they broke it in 5.1.

Roh_Mish

I like the pulsing led on my bedside at the night.

Chester

I actually prefer not to have the LED because it causes more anxiety than necessary. Plus, it doesn't give much more info at a glance other than "you have a notification to look at." I've actually turned off the notification LED on my Nexus 5 even though there is no Ambient Display option (it also helps that I have Android Wear to fall back).

Also owning a 2014 Moto X, I prefer a mix of both Moto's and Google's implementation of the Moto/Ambient Display, which gives a much richer experience. I like that the screen turns on with motion or a gesture on the Moto Display, but I also prefer the information from the black and white Google Ambient Display. CM was able to accomplish this and I got the best of both worlds (personal opinion).

Options are great, but tl;dr it'd be even greater if the Ambient Display on the 5X and 6P included the use of IR sensors.

MustWarnOthers

Why would you prefer not to have an optional thing that you can just turn off in the settings? That doesn't make one bit of sense.

Kenny Cornwell

He never said he'd prefer to not have an option.

MustWarnOthers

"I actually prefer not to have the LED". What else could that possibly mean?

Kenny Cornwell

That he prefers to not use the LED, not that he prefers to not have an option. Heck, he even said "Options are great,"

DanSan

No, he said "NOT HAVE", he didn't say "NOT USE".

from his words, he doesn't want the LED there at all. this is only if we are taking his word literally.

Kenny Cornwell

Yes, it's true that he said "not have" but given the context of the rest of his comment it's safe to assume that he meant "not use"

Roh_Mish

Personal opinions. I am Better comfortable with led. The ambient display going of every 5 mins is what makes me mad.

its been my gripe on my Nexus 6 since day one. The light is there....why the f*ck is it disabled?? swore when I got this, I would stay away from rooting. Enable the damn thing

DanSan

I agree with you.

Its not that i hate active display but I find it useless. its constantly going off for no reason even when there are old notifications present. I much rather have a blinking LED to alert me. I use that in order to know if something is going on without having to touch or go near the phone. Using lightflow on my nexus 6 has been an adventure to say the least.

yep EXACTLY. My screen will go off if you bump the display by accident....but bump it on purpose and NOTHING. Its spotty at best. I really wish they would have enabled it with 6.0....but here I am on it, and NOTHING. Its aggravating, its like ordering a pepperoni pizza, but being forced to take off the pepperonis.

DanSan

lol yup. it goes off when I dont want it and doesn't work when i need it. I gave up with it. When riding in the car, in my holder and I get a text it goes off like every 15 seconds. I have to hit the power button to stop it.

thank god. i bought life flow premium last month and was hoping for this to work.
my $2.5 is not in drain for couple of years

ericshmerick

Nexus 5x easily wins this comparison. Can't have it all I guess.

TechGuy22

remind me of this LOL

john

Don't understand the excitement here... Nexus 5 also has an LED for notifications and has the same option present in the settings menu... Nothing new or earth shattering here.
Were they supposed to be different on the 5x or 6P ?

Like Ryan stated in the article, some people actually will turn their nose up at a phone without a notification light, and will refuse to buy it. Silly as hell, but it is what it is. Since nothing much was said of a notification light on the new Nexus phones, some people were wondering if they even had one. I guess the clouds parted.

Roh_Mish

Because nexus 6 dropped it officially.

King_Android

According to my sources, the light on the N6 was meant to help engineers determine the issue with the phone in case the phone has been damaged internally from some phenomenon. Which could be the reason why my notification light never came on without me tinkering with it until my hard drive fried due to water damage.

With the exception of two phones: Nexus S (2011) which had no LED, and Nexus 6 (2014) which needed root for its LED to function, every Nexus phone since 2010 has a notification LED.

ithehappy

Thanks for letting me know, never was interested, so couldn't know anyway!

gommer strike

Skill-testing questions:

So we see how we can enable the LED via the slider and enable further customization, if you install Lightflow, but my question is, if you install Lightflow - do you HAVE TO use Lightflow exclusively for all the LED colors? Can you install Lightflow, but then proceed to use WhatApp's LED color notification options?

Secondly. Can you disable the Active Screen notifications after you enabled the LED? Cause I'd rather have the LED tell me everything and not have the screen light up.

Roh_Mish

Yes. And yes.

JG

I wonder why Google decided to add the extra Z onto the phone by including the LED hardware despite the phone already having a more efficient notification display system... And couldn't be bothered to do so for the wireless charge feature...

I miss Blackberry notification lights from ye olden Curve 8330. I could use that light as a nightlight or to guide ships. The Samsung S3 also had an excellent notification light. The 6P light looks weak but the 5X light looks sweet.

T.J.

I might have to switch to using the LED when I get my 5x. It has an LCD panel so Ambient Display doesn't really do any good; the backlight will still light up the whole screen. At least the 6p has an amoled panel that works correctly with Ambient Display.

youareme7

It's odd to me that the option doesn't show up on my nexus 6 when I know it has one. Seems like they just don't want to add a feature that wasn't in the software previously. I used to occasionally use it when running a custom rom but honestly don't care too much. Still wish it was in the options.

Idea guy

The edge of the phone should have a thin strip of plastic all the way around, or micro holes in the metal/plastic that glow.

I am pleased to learn that the new Nexus phones still have the LED.
I consider the LED very useful, since it is cleary visible and keeps lighting up until the cause of the notification has been cared for. This in contrast to ambient display that lights up and disappears after some time.
On the Nexus 6 I first used Light Flow to make use of the LED. Recently I switched to CyanogenMod and found the feature integrated there already, just had to activate it.

kunal

the pulse light still doesn't glow even after enabling it. what may be the reason?

notpoliticalyet

The 6P noti light does the job well enough. At least they enabled it on this unlike the N6.

Big_Irene

I need the LED to stay full on when there's an alert. It blinks so slowly... that I have to constantly stop my work... to stare at the phone... and wait and wait and wait until it "might" blink. Ugh. On should be on. Off should be off. I don't have time to play games 100x per day in the middle of work and meetings.